No matter what side of the Mason-Dixon line you live on, you will find Celia Rivenbark's hilarious observations about Southern living as easy as a tall drink of sweet tea on a hundred-degree day.

4 out of 5 stars

A darn funny listen y'all

By
Teresa
on
12-13-08

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

By:
Ann B. Ross

Narrated by:
Karen White

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
261

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
235

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
237

Miss Julia, a recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow and unceremoniously announces that the child is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal - and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence turns her life upside down.

4 out of 5 stars

Miss Julia is 60+ yrs old.. reader is too young

By
jennifer
on
07-13-12

Miss Julia Raises the Roof

By:
Ann B. Ross

Narrated by:
Cynthia Darlow

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged

Overall

0 out of 5 stars
0

Performance

0 out of 5 stars
0

Story

0 out of 5 stars
0

With her husband, Sam, off on a trip to Europe, Miss Julia takes a pause to reflect on the past few decades - realizing how the comforts and joys of her life can sometimes give way to boredom. Miss Julia reckons it's about time to roll up her sleeves and be of some use to her community. She's just considering how to get involved when she hears that the nosy do-gooder Madge Taylor and the new pastor Rucker are embarking on a mission to buy up the vacant house down the street from Miss Julia and establish a group home for wayward teenagers.

Before We Were Yours

A Novel

By:
Lisa Wingate

Narrated by:
Emily Rankin,
Catherine Taber

Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
22,788

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
20,802

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
20,708

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth.

4 out of 5 stars

I was rivetted, finished in three days.

By
Lin Cloward
on
06-26-17

We're Just Like You, Only Prettier

Confessions of a Tarnished Southern Belle

By:
Celia Rivenbark

Narrated by:
Steven Crossley

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Unabridged

Overall

3.5 out of 5 stars
70

Performance

3.5 out of 5 stars
49

Story

4 out of 5 stars
49

Humorous essays on life in the south. A Southern woman's take on daily life.

5 out of 5 stars

Narrator was so distracting

By
ANYA
on
01-23-14

Triptych

By:
Karin Slaughter

Narrated by:
Michael Kramer

Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,412

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,984

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,989

From Atlanta's wealthiest suburbs to its stark inner-city housing projects, a killer has crossed the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries, too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael's lover before she became his enemy.

5 out of 5 stars

Spoiler Alert

By
Patricia
on
12-13-15

Belle Weather

Mostly Sunny With a Chance of Hissy Fits

By:
Celia Rivenbark

Narrated by:
Celia Rivenbark

Length: 4 hrs and 49 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
97

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
62

Story

4 out of 5 stars
61

No matter what side of the Mason-Dixon line you live on, you will find Celia Rivenbark's hilarious observations about Southern living as easy as a tall drink of sweet tea on a hundred-degree day.

4 out of 5 stars

A darn funny listen y'all

By
Teresa
on
12-13-08

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

By:
Ann B. Ross

Narrated by:
Karen White

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
261

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
235

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
237

Miss Julia, a recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow and unceremoniously announces that the child is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal - and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence turns her life upside down.

4 out of 5 stars

Miss Julia is 60+ yrs old.. reader is too young

By
jennifer
on
07-13-12

Miss Julia Raises the Roof

By:
Ann B. Ross

Narrated by:
Cynthia Darlow

Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins

Unabridged

Overall

0 out of 5 stars
0

Performance

0 out of 5 stars
0

Story

0 out of 5 stars
0

With her husband, Sam, off on a trip to Europe, Miss Julia takes a pause to reflect on the past few decades - realizing how the comforts and joys of her life can sometimes give way to boredom. Miss Julia reckons it's about time to roll up her sleeves and be of some use to her community. She's just considering how to get involved when she hears that the nosy do-gooder Madge Taylor and the new pastor Rucker are embarking on a mission to buy up the vacant house down the street from Miss Julia and establish a group home for wayward teenagers.

Before We Were Yours

A Novel

By:
Lisa Wingate

Narrated by:
Emily Rankin,
Catherine Taber

Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
22,788

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
20,802

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
20,708

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family's Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth.

4 out of 5 stars

I was rivetted, finished in three days.

By
Lin Cloward
on
06-26-17

We're Just Like You, Only Prettier

Confessions of a Tarnished Southern Belle

By:
Celia Rivenbark

Narrated by:
Steven Crossley

Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins

Unabridged

Overall

3.5 out of 5 stars
70

Performance

3.5 out of 5 stars
49

Story

4 out of 5 stars
49

Humorous essays on life in the south. A Southern woman's take on daily life.

5 out of 5 stars

Narrator was so distracting

By
ANYA
on
01-23-14

Triptych

By:
Karin Slaughter

Narrated by:
Michael Kramer

Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
3,412

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,984

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,989

From Atlanta's wealthiest suburbs to its stark inner-city housing projects, a killer has crossed the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries, too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael's lover before she became his enemy.

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline's world is forever changed when Hitler's army invades Poland in September 1939 - and then sets its sights on France. An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement.

5 out of 5 stars

The cover is a bit misleading, but...

By
Joy Easton
on
05-18-16

Himself

A Novel

By:
Jess Kidd

Narrated by:
Aiden Kelly

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
326

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
308

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
311

Having been abandoned on the steps of an orphanage as an infant, lovable car thief and Dublin charmer Mahony assumed all his life that his mother had simply given him up. But when he receives an anonymous note suggesting that foul play may have led to his mother's disappearance, he sees only one option: to return to the rural Irish village where he was born and find out what really happened 26 years ago.

5 out of 5 stars

Masterful narration of a clever story

By
J. Lynn
on
03-28-17

Those Secrets We Keep

By:
Emily Liebert

Narrated by:
Suzanne Elise Freeman

Length: 9 hrs

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
13

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
12

Story

4 out of 5 stars
11

On the surface Sloane has the perfect life - an adoring husband, a precocious daughter, and enough financial security to be a stay-at-home mom. Still, she can't help but feel as though something - or someone - is missing.

The Book of Polly

A Novel

By:
Kathy Hepinstall

Narrated by:
Jenna Lamia

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,168

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
1,098

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,094

Willow Havens is 10 years old and obsessed with the fear that her mother will die. Her mother, Polly, is a cantankerous, take-no-prisoners Southern woman who lives to chase varmints, drink margaritas, and antagonize the neighbors - and she sticks out like a sore thumb among the young, modern mothers of their small conventional Texas town. She was in her late 50s when Willow was born, so Willow knows she's here by accident, a late-life afterthought.

5 out of 5 stars

The incredible Jenna Lamia!

By
Mary Smiroldo
on
05-09-17

If Life Is A Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing In The Pits?

By:
Erma Bombeck

Narrated by:
Barbara Rosenblat

Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
71

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
46

Story

4 out of 5 stars
47

You can count on best-selling author Erma Bombeck to show you the funny side of any situation - no matter how ordinary or difficult. In this collection of heartwarming essays, she ponders what it takes to survive the rigors of contemporary living.

2 out of 5 stars

If life is a bowl of cherries

By
Amazon Customer. Dorothy Kletke
on
09-26-17

Louisiana Longshot

A Miss Fortune Mystery, Book 1

By:
Jana DeLeon

Narrated by:
Cassandra Campbell

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,973

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,721

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,702

It was a hell of a long shot.... CIA assassin Fortune Redding is about to undertake her most difficult mission ever - in Sinful, Louisiana. With a leak at the CIA and a price placed on her head by one of the world's largest arms dealers, Fortune has to go off-grid, but she never expected to be this far out of her element.

5 out of 5 stars

Clever, funny and fun

By
Pamela
on
06-08-16

Beartown

By:
Fredrik Backman

Narrated by:
Marin Ireland

Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
4,617

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
4,286

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
4,261

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semifinals, and they actually have a shot at winning.

5 out of 5 stars

A Barrel To The Head, A Slug To The Gut--

By
Gillian
on
04-28-17

A Return to Love

By:
Marianne Williamson

Narrated by:
Marianne Williamson

Length: 2 hrs and 40 mins

Abridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,956

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,506

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
1,496

In
A Return to Love, Marianne Williamson shares her reflections on
A Course in Miracles and her insights on the application of love in the search for inner peace.

5 out of 5 stars

My return to love

By
Michael
on
07-26-05

Moon Over Manifest

By:
Clare Vanderpool

Narrated by:
Jenna Lamia,
Cassandra Campbell,
Kirby Heyborne

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
942

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
828

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
828

Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was. Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it's just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos.

5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely Wonderful Family Story

By
Debbie
on
04-23-14

Velva Jean Learns to Drive

By:
Jennifer Niven

Narrated by:
Jenna Lamia

Length: 14 hrs and 59 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
576

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
464

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
461

Set in Appalachia in the years before World War II,
Velva Jean Learns to Drive is a poignant story of a spirited young girl growing up in the gold-mining and moonshining South. Before she dies, Velva Jean's mother urges her to "live out there in the great wide world." Velva Jean dreams of becoming a big-time singer in Nashville until she falls in love with Harley Bright, a handsome juvenile delinquent turned revival preacher.

4 out of 5 stars

If Jenna Lamia reads it, I'll listen to it!

By
Susan
on
12-17-09

The Rules of Magic

By:
Alice Hoffman

Narrated by:
Marin Ireland

Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,498

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,304

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
2,297

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man. Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the '60s, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique.

5 out of 5 stars

Not What I Expected

By
Rita Lyons
on
11-13-17

I Feel Bad About My Neck

And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman

By:
Nora Ephron

Narrated by:
Nora Ephron

Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
1,155

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
678

Story

4 out of 5 stars
669

With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in
I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.

4 out of 5 stars

Don't make me get out of the car...

By
Kestrel
on
10-09-06

Publisher's Summary

To know the Sweet Potato Queens is to love them, and if you haven't heard about them yet, you will. Since the early 1980s, this group of belles gone bad has been the toast of Jackson, Mississippi, with their glorious annual appearance in the St. Patrick's Day parade. In
The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love, their royal ringleader, Jill Conner Browne, introduces the Queens to the world with this sly, hilarious manifesto about love, life, men, and the importance of being prepared. Topics include:

The True Magic Words Guaranteed to Get Any Man to Do Your Bidding

The Five Men You Must Have in Your Life at All Times

Men Who May Need Killing, Quite Frankly

What to Eat When Tragedy Strikes, or Just for EntertainmentAnd, of course:

The Best Advice Ever Given in the Entire History of the World

From tales of the infamous Sweet Potato Queens' Promise to the joys of Chocolate Stuff and Fat Mama's Knock You Naked Margaritas, this irreverent, shamelessly funny book is the gen-u-wine article.

Story

Forget the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

And move over Janet Evanovich, this is flat out the most hilarious book I have ever read or listened to. Not only is it funny, but the SPQ advice is right on the money - like "be particular" and "never wear panties to a party". I was constantly rewinding to listen to parts of it 2, sometimes 3 times. Since I listen while I drive, I'm sure there are drivers out there who think they've shared the road with a very strange person. I have recommended that friends put this one on the top of their lists.

Laughing out loud

Loved it!

I have listened to several of the Sweet Potato Queens books and I absolutely LOVE them! They make me laugh while driving, and I really don't care how long it takes me to get to work in downtown Dallas! Jill Conner Browne as the author is perfect ... she has the southern drawl that drags you in and keeps you laughing. The accent alone keeps me laughing. It is really unfortunate that you do not have all the fabulous recipes in print ..... (sigh). You will definitely have to go back to the books and listen to and write down the great recipes. Sweet Potato Queens know how to eat!

Wonderful

Havent we heard it all before?

There are those for which this book is written, and even though they've had the same thing packaged in various ways a million times before, they will continue to love it. I am not one of these people.
Take Cosmo magazine, age its writers and target audience a few decades, add the typical southern female angle and put them in the era of Designing Women and you have this book.
Sometimes I wonder if women get silly for tips like always where cute panties at two ages, adolescence/early twenties when you read the Bag Girls Guides, and when you hit that certain age the women in this book decline to mention, of course because a lady doesn't.
Personally, this kind of shallow empowerment never appealed to me but it does have a market and can be entertaining if you're hearing it for the first time. I mean I dont object to the shallowness, we are are shallow at times and many women do feel empowered in cute panties and awesome shoes, and thats great, but I do object to the lack of any substance with the shallow quips. This is like the various trends that tell young girls that girl power is short skirts and flowers. This book is exactly how I thought beauty queens would age. Fried Green Tomatoes was better.

love love love love love love love love this book

Not for me

Struggled to finish it. I have been attempting to expand my reading genre but this was not a good choice as a selection for humor for in personal opinion.

It was extremely wordy, it jumped around from scene to scene, there were no real characters, and there was no development. Sad because this author can write.

The only thing that truly sticks out for me that I will never forget about this book is how a group of women that thinks beauty pageants are terrible images of women and how they are portrayed turns around and becomes themselves a group of women who in my eyes are even a much worse group in every imaginable category! The things they brag about, how they treat others that attempt to join their groups, and the way they approach men and the things they do promise men in order to get them to do things for them I find appalling and would never want to have anything to do with any of these women or associate with anyone they know. I don't find any of this funny nor would I support any of this. The saddest part is this is a true story and the parades do take place. Worse yet, is that women still use their bodies like this even in an age like today. SMH

better written, but still fun

Would you consider the audio edition of The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love to be better than the print version?

No, but this is the first of the series. By the latest (fat is new 30), JCB has honed the craft. If you like and enjoy the written exploits of the tammys, you'll still like the audio,but I would have liked it less if I fight already have a mental image of the big booties and big hairs in mind from reading

What did you like best about this story?

JCB isn't afraid to just tell it how it isn't. She exaggerates in the great, just too much over the top way that Dave Barry and Steve Martin do,just enough to over come the anxiety that makes something "offensive" and makes it downright ludicrous and there fore revealing. Ex. The big butt and boob costumes that weigh in at 40 lbs each or the food groups of fat, fried, salty, and an gratin.

What three words best describe Jill Conner Browne’s performance?

Southern beauty queen

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

She has more of these in fat is the new 30 where she takes care of her dying mom. Never have I read before someone who tells that as it is- a process that goes on for longer than you want, can be downright ordinary, and even funny, but also really stresses the soul.

Any additional comments?

JCB and dave Barry should spend a week in upstate Florida writing . I'd kill for that kind of backwoods southern humor.